


Winter Rose Tattoo and Piercing

by cherrylove



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Character Death, Domestic Violence, F/M, Sansa is a tattoo artist, Tattoos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-02
Updated: 2014-10-02
Packaged: 2018-02-19 14:25:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2391626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherrylove/pseuds/cherrylove
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The auburn haired girl in the sundresses, tattoos, and legs that went on for days, who was standing outside, braiding her hair was the reason Jon Snow was currently keeping an eye on Gilly’s flower shop for the third time in one week when he knew next to nothing about flowers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Winter Rose Tattoo and Piercing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sansapotter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sansapotter/gifts).



> I want to give a big thanks to the lovely sansaandwinterfell for helping me edit and tweak this. She's a lifesaver.

The auburn haired girl in the sundresses, tattoos, and legs that went on for days, who was standing outside, braiding her hair was the reason Jon Snow was currently keeping an eye on Gilly’s flower shop for the third time in one week when he knew next to nothing about flowers.

The first time he offered to watch the shop was because she needed to take little Sam to the doctor and Sam was out of town a couple months ago. Jon was outside watering some flowers in hanging baskets when he saw a girl in a bright green sundress and heels out of the tattoo shop next door. She leaned against the brick wall of the shop and picked at her nails, just like she was doing now. She did this every day for several minutes every couple hours. The only other time he saw her was when she would walk people out of the shop with a wave and a smile then she would walk back inside. 

The bell above the door jingled as Sam pushed through the door and inside. “Why don’t you just go talk to her already? Sansa’s nice. Don’t let the tattoos fool you. She’s a great girl, just covered in tattoos.” 

Jon looked up at Sam and shook his head, “What reason would I have for going in there Sam? I can’t just tell her I decided to come in because I’ve been basically watching her since I started helping you and Gilly out here.”

“What about the memorial tattoo for Ygritte?” Sam asked, “Weren’t you planning on getting one?” 

“Well yeah, but I don’t think having the girl I might be interested in do the memorial tattoo for my dead girlfriend is the best starting point,” Jon told him. 

“She might think it’s sweet. I know she has a memorial tattoo for her brother that she designed, maybe she’ll empathize and think it’s sweet that you wanted to honor her like that,” Sam countered. 

Jon didn’t really have much to say in way of arguing. Sam had a point. He did want to get this tattoo for Ygritte. Maybe she would think it’s sweet and maybe it wouldn’t completely put her off the idea of maybe going to grab dinner with him afterwards. Maybe Sam was wrong. Maybe it would do the absolute opposite. 

As if he could tell what Jon was thinking, Sam spoke, “You will never know what she’ll think or what’s going to happen unless you try Jon.”

Jon gave his friend an exasperated look and sighed, “Fine. I’ll go talk to her about it.” 

“Good. I can handle things here until Gilly gets back,” Sam said, giving Jon a slight shove towards the door.

Jon left Gillyflower’s Boutique and pushed his way into Winter Rose Tattoo and Piercing. Inside the glass-fronted cabinets of the front desk were varying kinds of body jewelry and on top sat three portfolios. One had block lettering and was apparently by an artist at the shop named Mya, the second was labeled in bubbly handwriting and belonged to Margaery, and the last one with the fancy, swirling script belonged to Sansa. He looked up from the portfolios to see a smiling, girl with a nose ring and long, curly brown hair with fire truck red highlights, “Welcome to Winter Rose. I’m Margaery, how can I help you?”

“I was, um, I was looking to talk to someone about a tattoo,” Jon told her. 

“Alright! Well, we have three different artists and I recommend taking a look at our portfolios unless you already have someone in mind,” she told him. 

“I actually did. I was wondering if I could talk to Sansa,” Jon told her. 

Margaery perked up and nodded, “Yeah of course. I’ll go see if she’s done with her lunch. She might even be able to fit you in for an appointment later today or tomorrow. She just had someone chicken out on her.” She hopped down from her stool and clicked her way across the shop in her ridiculously high heels. Jon shoved a hand into his pocket as he flipped through Sansa’s portfolio with the other. It was extensive and well rounded. She seemed to do a lot of memorial pieces while also managing to do a great job on more whimsical pieces. She was talented for sure. 

The sound of heels resounded through the shop once more and Jon glanced up from the portfolio when the sound stopped. 

“Hey. I’m Sansa. What can I do for you?” she asked, holding out her hand. 

Jon shook her hand and ran a hand through his curls before speaking, “I’m Jon. I was wanting to see about getting a tattoo of a bow and two arrows on the underside of my left upper arm.” 

“Alright. Sounds doable as long as you can handle the pain,” she teased. 

Jon chuckled, a light brush spreading across his cheeks, “I think I’ll be okay.” 

“Alright, well if you want to give me about an hour and a half I can get it drawn up and then we can get to work if you want or we can set another day if you’d be more comfortable with that,” she told him. 

Jon sputtered and struggled for an answer for several moments before nodding, “Today’s fine. I’ll just go let my dog out and grab a quick lunch and come back. How much am I going to owe you?” he asked. 

“Oh, I’d say somewhere around a hundred to a hundred and fifty. It’s a hundred an hour and this should only take about an hour to an hour and a half,” she told him. 

“Alright…well I’ll see you in a bit Sansa,” Jon said, giving her a half-smile.

Sansa smiled back, her blue eyes sparkling in the light of the shop, “See you then Jon.” He turned and left the shop, hurrying out to his Jeep. 

An hour later, Jon was back at Winter Rose after having fed Ghost and finding something in his basically barren fridge to feed himself. He walked back into the shop and Sansa was standing at one of the stations getting it all set up and ready to go, a pair of black gloves on her hands. Jon found himself watching her and his eyes tracing her multitude of visible tattoos. He focused on the thorny vine that curled around her forearm that was broken up with the occasional winter rose before his attention moved to the dagger on her other arm. It was elegant and clearly designed to look like it belonged to a woman. The blade was simple and a date was inked parallel to it. She turned to pick up something and on her back over her left shoulder blade was a grey and white wolf, laying beneath a tree covered in red and orange leaves that made it look like it was on fire. She turned around and spotted Jon, “Hi! Sorry! I got lost in my set up. You haven’t been here long have you?” 

Jon shook his head, “No not long at all.”

“Oh good,” she said with a sigh of relief, “You ready to get the stencil on? I hope you like the bow and arrow I drew up.”

“I’m sure it’ll be great,” he said with a smile. 

“Alright, why don’t you come over here,” she said, leading him over to the front desk. “So this is what I came up with. I know you said a bow and two arrows but I went with one arrow so I could get a bit more detail into it.” She lay the stencil down and let him look over it. The bow she created was intricate and the arrow was set like it was ready to be let loose at any second. The bow was drawn in a half moon shape with a notch for the archer’s hand and the ends curved elegantly. “I know, it’s a little feminine but I got the feeling you were getting it for a woman so I took some artistic liberty, I can change if I need to. “

Jon shook his head, “No, it’s…it’s perfect. Let’s get started.” 

Sansa smiled and picked up the stencil, leading him to the station she’d been setting up when he arrived. She shaved the area for the tattoo of hair and then placed the stencil carefully. She had him check the placement to make sure he liked it before getting him set up on the chair. She tied her hair up after removing her gloves and then rewashed her hands and put on a new pair. She sat down and set up the machine, “So is this your first tattoo?” she asked him.

“Is it that obvious?”

“Only a little,” Sansa let out a small laugh, “Don’t worry. I’ll be gentle. Just relax; it’ll be over before you know it. Talk to me. Tell me about the tattoo or something interesting. It’ll help the time pass.” 

Jon took in a deep breath as the buzzing of the tattoo gun came closer. It touched skin and he hissed as she began tattooing him. “Can I ask you something?” 

“Of course,” Sansa answered. 

“How’d you start out getting them?” Jon asked. “Your tattoos.” 

“Well I got my first one after I left my ex-boyfriend. It was…ugly and hard and I got the dagger to remind myself to fight for my mental and physical health,” Sansa told him. “Margaery is actually the one who took me to get my first tattoo and then I got a few more. Soon I had way more than I ever expected to get. I was covering up in sweaters and long pants every day to go work at the museum, but after awhile I realized that being a curator wasn’t what I wanted to do anymore. I wanted to do art. I took some classes to improve my art and then found an apprenticeship at the Golden Rose, Margaery’s brother’s shop. After finishing there and saving up after hundreds and hundreds of tattoos. I opened Winter Rose and Margaery finished her apprenticeship at Baratheon Ink and joined me here.”

“Sounds like quite the transition,” Jon said.

Sansa laughed softly, “Yeah, it was. Art curator was stuffy and I loved the art, but tattooing is where my heart is. Now it’s your turn. Why did you want to get a tattoo, this tattoo?” 

“It’s for my...it’s for a...it’s in honor of someone special,” he told her. 

“Oh? She must have been a pretty amazing person,” she mused. 

Jon sighed, “She was. Ygritte was amazing. She was my partner and a really awesome police officer. A lot of the guys at the precinct that were terrified of her, but she was…” He trailed off, “I miss her a lot. She died on duty when we responded to a domestic violence call. I’m getting the bow and arrow because archery was her favorite thing to do.” 

“Oh, I’m uh, I’m really sorry. I think it’s great you’re getting this tattoo in memory of her,” Sansa told him, continuing with the outline. 

“It seemed appropriate. We were together awhile and she meant a lot to me. She helped me feel like I had a family I suppose,” Jon told her. 

“That’s…amazing Jon,” Sansa told him. She changed the needles and moved on to shading in the tattoo, “I think it’s really sweet. I have my own memorial tattoo. It’s for my brother. He was killed in Iraq saving one of the guy’s in his unit. I got the wolf on my back for him. He was loyal and protective and everything a big brother should be and wolves were his favorite animals. I got the tree in autumn because autumn was our favorite time of year and both of us were born in the autumn.” 

“It’s a beautiful tattoo Sansa. I’m sure your brother would love it,” he said. 

Sansa smiled, “I would like to think so. I think Ygritte would love yours if she could see it.” She wiped the damp cloth over the tattoo one last time and turned off the machine, throwing away the needles. She applied a thin layer of A&D ointment and let him take a look at it, “What do you think?” 

He looked into the mirror and nodded, a smile crossing his face, “It looks great Sansa. It’s actually perfect. Thank you.” 

“You’re welcome. Thanks for sharing your story. It’s one of my favorite parts of being a tattoo artist,” she told him. “I love getting to know my clients through their tattoos.” 

Jon stood there for a moment as she wrapped it up. He started to say something, but she began talking again, “So after care is pretty simple. After an hour take off the plastic wrap and wash it off with lukewarm water and soap. Don’t use a washcloth or anything, just your fingertips and then pat dry. I’m going to give you some Aquaphor so you can put that on it for the first couple days and after it starts peeling, start applying unscented lotion. I’ll give you a sheet of paper so you can remember all this, but I like to go over it verbally too.” She threw her gloves into the trashcan and handed over the after care instructions to him. “Any questions?”

Jon stood there admiring her for a moment and nodded, “I have one.” 

“Alright, what is it?” she asked. 

“Would you like to go get dinner with me?” he asked. 

Sansa stood there for a moment, a stunned look on her face. She bit the inside of her cheek and looked at her heels before looking up at him, a soft smile on her face, “Sure. I’d like that.”

Jon smiled back at her, “Great. Do you like pizza? I know a really great place near the precinct.”

Sansa laughed softly, “I love pizza. Let’s go.” 

She dug a set of keys out of the pocket of her dress before tossing them to Margaery, who caught them with a smile and went back to whatever she had been doing at the front counter.

Jon led her out of the shop and towards his Jeep. He opened the door for her and climbed into the driver’s side. He looked over at the woman sitting next to him and smiled. He was glad he listened to Sam and went into that shop. She was nice and complex and beautiful. Jon had a feeling this was the beginning of something good.


End file.
